Beaver watching at Miquelon Lake Provincial Park

September 12, 2025October 13, 2025 / edebock / 6 Comments

Earlier this week, we spent three days camping at Miquelon Lake Provincial Park. We hiked a little over 9 km (5.6 miles) one day and about half of that the following day, but by far the most fun we had was an hour spent watching a family of beavers hard at work. We came upon them quite by accident while enjoying an evening stroll alongside the Grebe Pond and stayed until my camera battery died! Of the many photos that I took, this one is my favourite.

The North American beaver, officially Canada’s national animal, is this continent’s largest rodent. The saying “busy as a beaver” is very apt. As we watched, the industrious critters constantly crossed the path in front of us on a well-worn trail from the water’s edge to the hillside above us. There we could hear them using their long orange incisors to busily cut branches from the trees that they felled before dragging them down to the shoreline.

Look at the size of the load that this one was hauling!

We’ve encountered a beaver in the water several times when we’ve been kayaking. If we get too close for comfort, it slaps its tail on the water with a thunderous splash and dives beneath the surface. At first, these ones were clearly surprised to see us watching them from just a few feet away, but they didn’t seem too bothered by our quiet presence. The young ones were the most cautious, first sitting still in the edge of the brush and peeking out before quickly scooting across in front of us.

With its big, webbed hind feet and its rudder-like tail, it’s no wonder that the beaver is such a good swimmer. Not only did they drag the branches down to the water’s edge, but then they swam across the pond with them to add them to their lodges on the other side.

We had thought that this would be our last camping adventure of the year, but we had such a good time that we’re thinking of trying to squeeze in one more. As I mentioned in my last post, I’m never quite ready to let go of summer!

Crossing the finish line

September 28, 2024September 27, 2024 / edebock / 8 Comments

On Wednesday, while hiking the Holdsworth Trail in Miquelon Lake Provincial Park, I crossed the finish line of my self-imposed 300 km in 150 days walking challenge 10 days before the deadline!

I recently read a quote by French philosopher and author, Albert Camus that resonated with me. It describes perfectly why we love to camp and hike at Miquelon in the fall.

“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.”

In fact, after completing the Holdsworth Trail on Wednesday, we hiked another 8.9 km on the park’s beautiful and very colourful backcountry trails the following day.

Although I’ve now accomplished my walking/hiking goal for this season, I’ll continue keeping track of my distance at least until my 72nd birthday on the 5th of October which was the deadline that I’d set for myself and then I’ll keep on walking and hiking until the snow flies, hopefully sometime in the distant future!

Another Miquelon September

September 17, 2023 / edebock / 6 Comments

We spent several days this week camping at Miquelon Lake Provincial Park, less than an hour and a half from home. We’ve camped there several times in the past, always in September.

It’s definitely not the lake that keeps us going back. Shallow, saline, and shrinking rapidly, it’s a small fraction of the size that it was a century ago. In fact, we’ve seen the water level drop significantly over the past few years. No, it’s the well-maintained hiking trails that keep us returning to Miquelon..

The “knob and kettle” terrain consists of hummocky mounds (the knobs) and water-filled depressions (the kettles). Hiking trails wind up and down, around and between the ponds and at this time of year, colourful foliage adds to park’s natural beauty. Here in Alberta, we don’t get the wide variety of fall colours that are found in eastern Canada, but Miquelon seems to be an exception! Is it any wonder that we love to go there in September?

Over the past few days, we hiked a total of 26.5 kilometres (16.5 miles). As we made our way up and down the “knobs”, we definitely felt muscles that don’t come into play as much when we walk the level ground around home! Thankfully, our legs are in pretty good shape though. With just over 6 weeks to go, I’m only 32 km short of my goal of walking and/or hiking 350 km between May 1 and Oct 31!

With our bear bell ringing, we didn’t see any of the larger wildlife, including deer, moose and elk, that live within the park, but there was clear evidence of their presence along the trails. Plenty of fresh hoof prints and droppings, including bear scat, told us that they weren’t too far off. We did see rabbits, squirrels, one garter snake, several grouse, and numerous other birds including an abundance of waterfowl. It was also clear that industrious beaver have been hard at work.

The campground was very quiet during the week, but we were surprised to see how many rigs pulled in on Friday. Obviously, we aren’t the only ones who enjoy fall camping!

There were even a few hardy souls sleeping in tents. It must have been pretty chilly with nighttime temperatures dipping close to 0ºC (32ºF). We were toasty warm in our trailer bed though, except for the one night when the propane ran out and the furnace stopped running! Thankfully, fixing that problem was as simple as switching over to the second propane tank.

We’re hoping to fit in one more short camping trip before winter and I have no doubt that we’ll be back to Miquelon again another September.

300+ km!

September 23, 2021 / edebock / 1 Comment

Yesterday morning, on a quiet walk beside Grebe Pond in Miquelon Lake Provincial Park, I crossed an invisible finish line! If you’ve been reading my blog over the summer months, you know that on the second of May I challenged myself to walk and/or hike 300 km by our 45th wedding anniversary on October 2. With just 10 days to go, I accomplished that goal!

On Monday morning, we headed off on one last camping trip before cleaning out the trailer and preparing it for winter. We knew that the nights would be cold (in fact, it was 4°C or 39°F when we got up this morning) but with an extra quilt and a furnace, we were toasty warm. The days were crisp, but great for hiking and over the three days that we were there, we hiked over 19 km (almost 12 miles).

In addition to Miquelon Lake itself, the park is dotted with small bodies of water, home to many kinds of waterfowl. The “knob and kettle” terrain consists of hummocky mounds (the knobs) and water-filled depressions (the kettles). Hiking trails wind up and down, around and between the ponds and at this time of year, colourful foliage adds to park’s natural beauty.

So, let me share a bit of that beauty with you…

Tuesday’s hike was the longest; 9.2 km on the park’s backcountry trails. We packed a lunch and set off about 10:30 in the morning when the air had had a chance to warm up a bit. This was the view from our lunch spot…

Just me enjoying another view…

The next photo was taken close to my self-imposed 300 km finish line. I’ve always loved reflections on water.

And finally, a couple of shots from the end of Moose Trail, our last hike…

Fall camping

September 13, 2015 / edebock / 3 Comments

I’ve always wanted to go camping in the fall; always hoped for just one more outing with the trailer before winter hit. As teachers, it never happened. We were back in the classroom and up to our eyeballs in work by late August or the first week of September. Then, with retirement came several years of helping our friend, Louis, with harvest. I loved being out on the combine, but it meant that there was no time for camping in the fall.

Finally, this year it happened! We packed up the trailer last Wednesday morning and headed for Miquelon Lake Provincial Park, less than an hour and a half from home. Surrounded by the spectacular colours of the season, fall camping was everything I always thought it would be! Though we got caught in the rain while out geocaching on Wednesday afternoon, the clouds soon disappeared and for the remainder of our time the weather was glorious.

Here in Alberta, we don’t get the wide variety of fall colours that are found in eastern Canada, but everywhere I turned I was surrounded by beauty and I took dozens of pictures!

We found 14 geocaches within the park boundaries, but the highlight of our trip was definitely Friday’s hike. We left the trailhead late in the morning intending to hike 7.3 kilometres, but we’d completed all but 1.5 km of that by the time we stopped to eat lunch! Digging out our trail map, we quickly decided to add what we had originally thought might be a separate hike sometime in the future. In the end, we covered 13.2 km! Considering the fact that just a few months ago, I couldn’t walk more than two km without playing out, I was pretty stoked!

Those of you who’ve been reading my blog for very long know how much we enjoy exploring old abandoned houses that give us glimpses into life in days gone by. Imagine our surprise and delight when Richard spotted an old brick chimney rising out of the bush a short distance from the trail. Of course, we had to take a closer look! Although the girl manning the park office couldn’t give us any information about the house or its original inhabitants, it was easy to see that the two storey structure and its smaller outbuilding must have been there long before the park was established in 1958.

Though we didn’t see any of the larger wildlife, including deer, moose and elk, that live within the park, there was clear evidence of their presence along the trails. Plenty of fresh hoof prints and droppings told us they weren’t far off. What we did see were squirrels, muskrat, tiny frogs, a surprising number of garter snakes and an abundance of water fowl. As Miquelon Lake and the numerous wetland areas within the park are located within two of North America’s migratory flyways, flocks of migrating geese honked their way overhead and settled on the lake each evening.

Miquelon Lake is also part of the Beaver Hills Dark Sky Preserve, an an area that has been established to reduce the glare of artificial light and increase the visibility of the night sky. Each evening, as we sat around the fire in the crisp evening air, darkness settled around us and stars filled the sky. What could be more relaxing?

Dare I hope for one more camping trip before winter arrives?